A new fee schedule for the Pulaski County Health Department was approved by the County Commissioners on Monday.

“We came to the Commissioners to ask for them to approve a new fee schedule; we are going to now start charging for childhood vaccines an administrative fee of $8 per shot. For people who are on Medicaid, they will not need to pay that at time of services, we will be filing that with Medicaid because we are soon becoming a Medicaid provider,” said Terri Hansen of the Pulaski County Health Department.

Part of the necessity of this fee comes from the Departments’ desire to change one of their part-time nurses to a full-time nurse. Due to new guidelines and programs implemented by the state, a larger portion of the nurse’s time is dedicated to these programs, which means less time to perform other duties.

Hansen hopes that the change in the fee schedule will bring more money into the fund and make it easier to convince the Council and the Commissioners to approve the full-time position. The cost for the full-time nurse would be $37,000. The county already pays $22,000, and a grant would cover the remaining amount. The only money the county would need to come up with would be the money to cover the employee’s benefits, but with the new fee schedule, Hansen feels that shouldn’t be a problem.